I’ve written about this before: “A revolt against modernity. A revolt against the communications technologies which connect us. A revolt against a world where Western culture is one of many.” But above all, it is a revolt against the world where are the simple truths preached in fundamentalist and evangelical protestant churches are false.
Vaccination is not a new technology, nor is widespread deployment of vaccine a new thing. Vaccination has been used to suppress smallpox, one of the great ancient scourges of humanity, and polio. So why all this reaction against the COVID-19 vaccine? Apparently, because a significant fraction of the public is now persuaded that the use of the COVID-19 vaccine is blasphemous. But this is nonsense. Epidemics are nothing new and the Bible even advises the Israelites to follow medical advice.
The disease and the vaccines do not behave the way the preachers would have it. God doesn’t keep people from getting Covid and the vaccine works. So there is a crisis of faith. People have been given a choice: either believe what is taught in church or believe the advice to be vaccinated. And they know from overwhelming concrete evidence that the advice given in church is wrong. For these people the epidemic and the vaccine is a crisis of faith. They are angry and disappointed in a way which is unimaginable to someone who has not a pillar of their life pulled out from under them.
Past crises of faith have resulted in enormous outbursts of anger and destruction. How do we prevent that here?
I can't even argue with them stupid antivaxxers any more..
ReplyDeleteNor I. As I tweeted a few days ago, "I recently had an online interaction with a defender of Govs. DeSantis and Abbott and I realized that she had gone past the 'good German' level of Nazi-she was not unkowing but actively supporting something very like the Nazi Aktion T4."
ReplyDeleteDon't want to cut Nazoids any slack.